Mayor calls for Teesside coroner to resign

Middlesbrough mayor calls on coroner to resign

Middlesbrough Mayor Ray Mallon has called for Teesside's coroner Michael Sheffield to resign, saying that he has brought the service "into disrepute."

It comes after a report found that there was a backlog of up to three hundred inquests at any one time and that the time families had to wait to find out how their loved ones had died was much higher than the national average.

Ray Mallon also revealed that he had had two private meetings with Michael Sheffield last month, and said that it was regrettable that he has been forced to make this public.

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